FOREWORD AND POSTSCRIPT lxvii 



the head of the innocent. What strangers or what his inti- 

 mates knew about those family matters was what Audubon 

 was willing to tell them, and his own record shows plainly 

 enough that he preferred to bear the taunts of the uncharitable 

 rather than to face the reality ; but so redoubtable a handicap 

 should not be allowed to detract one iota from his just fame. 



IV 



"One of the great miracles of history would have occurred," 

 writes Miss Rourke, "if Audubon were the lost Dauphin, but 

 this is nothing against the idea." True enough, but the same 

 could be said of Eleazar Williams or any other of the numerous 

 pretenders impersonating that unfortunate prince. If there 

 were solid, unmistakable evidence to support the conclusion 

 that Audubon was the titular king of France, I should be only 

 too glad to accept it, but the presumptive evidence is all the 

 other way. The theory will not bear analysis ; it is too weak 

 to stand on its own feet. 



"Some of those closest to Audubon during his lifetime," says 

 Miss Rourke, "believed implicitly that he was of noble birth." 

 Very true, but Audubon said many things, at different times 

 and to different persons, which contradict point-blank what was 

 said in letters or journals intended for his wife — as that he 

 was born in the New World, or in one of the French colonies ; 

 that his mother died shortly after his birth; or that his first 

 memories were of Nantes, and that the only mother he had ever 

 known was his stepmother. In forming a judgment in the 

 midst of so many contradictions, we are inevitably thrown back 

 upon those family legal documents which have not been edited 

 or in any way tampered with, and which were drawn up before 

 the youth was grown to man's estate and obliged to fight his 

 way in a hostile world. In striving to reach the truth in such 

 a case, all domestic partiality must of necessity be laid aside. 



"A long period exists," says Miss Rourke, "between the 

 date given for Fougere's birth [April 26, 1785] and the date 



